San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-10-19

| sively, whom l endow with an income,
| whom deprive of the temptation to glut-
tony"
''Nebber see such debbel in all my
days." said the negro; 'nebber hear such
| ting told nowhere"
mo, nor ever will. Listen to me, sir.
| You will walk ten, twelve or twenty miles
a day, according to the dinner | have had
| And, mark you, it will be the worse for
| you if you do not. Remember, if / can
not eat l can drink"
There was a fiendish glare in his blood
stained eyes as he spoke, and tremblcd.
| My spirit was SO completely gone that |
had not even the pluck to appeal to his
| pity. Perhaps a secret consciousness of
the uselessness of such an appeal deferred
me.
"You will now," he said, "watch me
making as large dinner as your miser-
ably languid appetite will allow"
81 have been drunk for four nights" 1
pleaded.
"Then you have no business to get
drunk so easily. Your head is contempt
IDLY weak-what did l take yesterday,
Boule-de-neige?'
'Big bottle champagne, big bottle port,
eight goes whisky grog."
II did-and that was all. Why, your
predecessor stood double the quantity"
"Beg pardon, massa. Last young
gegleman poor trash-last but two-him
mighty strong head-head like bull
nebber get drunk"
"Ah, we wasted him, Boule-de- neige;
fooled him away in one imprudent even
ing told you at the time that noyeau
punch is a very dangerous thing"
"Ho, hOl' the diabolical negro laughed
till his teeth showed like the grinning
jaws of deaths head. "HO, hol him
so blind drunk he tumble out Of window
break him neck. Ho, hop
This was pleasant conversation for
me to hear.
Then Mr.. Grumbelow resumed his
dinner.
He ate good deal in spite of his grumb-
ling, and then he began to drink port. l
observed that the wine had peculiar eff
feet upon him. 1t made him redder in
the face, but not thicker in speech. He
drank two bottles, talking at me all the
time began to get drunk, he only got
the more merrily fiendish.
"This is really delightful" he said, as I
reeled and caught at a chair for support.
at Is quite new pleasure to watch the eff
fects of my own drink or another mans
brain. l shall write book about you. 1
shall callit The Young Christian Deferred,
or Leaves from Luke Lucraft's Wicked
Life HO, ha! hal no! saw the account
in The Morning Post. Heigh! heighn'-he
nearly chOked as he recalled the circum-
stance. "The magistrate admOnishing
the wicked drunkard. Ho, ho 1t is like
a farce. Stand up, sir, stand up! He
can't stand up. Can you sing? Can you
dance? He could not even dance horn
pipe Do you feel little thickness in
your speech? Would you be able to ex-
plain to the worthy magistrate the cir
cumstance, quite beyond your own control,
which brought you into that painful posi-
ton in which you stood? 1t is the best
situation that was ever put upon any
stage. There's nothing like it in fiction.
Nothing. Walter Scott never invented
anything half SO rich. Ho, no, hol he is
really getting drunk already. What a
poor creature it isr'
He paused for moment and then went
on.
"Boule-de-neige, coffee; brandy in it
plenty of brandy, and glass of curacao
afterward. A large glass, sirl I'll have
night of it. Your health, Luke Lucraft,
in this coffee; and you had better take
care of it, or I'll pack you off with noyeau
punch. Pleasant times you are having,
Ell? Might have been worse, you know.
You might have been starving. What?
Don't fall against the table in that way.
Take care of the furniturel 1t cost great
deal more money than you are worth. So,
sit down on the floor while l tell you
about your predecessors, dead and gone,
poor fellows.
"Let me see, the first was William
Saunders, poor devil of a clerk of NINE
He disgraced himself in chapel one week
day prayer meeting, the very evening Of
his signature; then he ran away, but
Boule-de-neige found him out, and brought
him back He took to praying and cry
ing. One day he died in st. BartholO-
news hospital of delirium tremens. He
lasted about six months.
1.-THE next was Hans Hansen, a Dane.
He only lasted about three weeks, because
he became melancholy directly he found
he could no longer taste brandy. l was
disappointed with Hansen, and when he
Jumped off London bridge into the Thames
one night, his appetite having quite gone,
l was really very sorry on account of the
temporary inconvenience it put me to;
and determined to be very careful in his
successor. l remember had good deal
of trouble to find one.
"HOwever, at last got a third man, a
stout Cumberland chap, son Of a states
man. You poor, puny little strolling
actor, suppose that you will hardly be-
lieve that l once took four-and twenty
tumblers of Scotch whisky and water
without affecting that brave fellows ap-
petite one bit. He used to take it out in
swearing: and really he was almost too
often in trouble with the magistrates.
He never clearly understood that his
safety lay in being home early in the even
ing Once he nearly killed Mr.. Crackett
in his own Office. Poor Crackettl that
eminent Christian lawyer; should never
have forgiven myself had anything hap
pened to the worthy Crackett. Well he
went too; at least, after a good tough
twelvemonth. 1t was my own fault, and
l ought not to grumble. That noyeau
punch was strong enough to kill the
devil"
"Cluck," said Boule-de-neige.
"Then we came to Tom Kirby. None
of them looked so well or promised so
much; none broke down so easily A
whining fellow, too; a crying, sobbing
appealing rogue, who wanted to get off
L. II0yrvayvar 1a